◀- Deuteronomy 19
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The Cities of Refuge
(1) "When the LORD your God has cut off the nations, whose land the LORD your God gives you, and you drive them out, and dwell in their cities, and in their houses;
(2) you shall separate three cities for yourself in the midst of your land, which the LORD your God gives you to possess it.
(3) You shall prepare yourself a way, and divide the borders of your land, which the LORD your God gives you to inherit, into three parts, that every slayer may flee there.
Protection for the Manslayer
(4) And this is the case of the slayer, who shall flee there, that he may live. Whoever kills his neighbor by ignorance, whom he did not hate in time past;
(5) As when a man goes into the woods with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle, and hits his neighbor, so that he dies; he shall flee to one of those cities, and live.
(6) Lest the avenger of blood pursue the slayer, while his anger is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and kill him; though he was not worthy of death, as he did not hate him in time past.
(7) Therefore I command you, saying, 'You shall separate three cities for yourself.'
(8) And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which he promised to give to your fathers,
(9) and if you shall keep all these commandments and do them, which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to walk always in his ways, then you shall add three more cities for yourself, beside these three,
(10) that innocent blood not be shed in your land, which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance, and so blood be on you.
(11) But if any man hates his neighbor, and lies in wait for him, and rises up against him, and strikes him mortally so that he dies, and flees to one of these cities,
(12) then the elders of his city shall send and bring him from there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, so that he may die.
(13) Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you.
Neighbor’s Landmark Not to be Removed
(14) You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which they of old time have set in your inheritance, which you shall inherit in the land that the LORD your God gives you to possess.
At Least Two Witnesses Required
(15) One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two witnesses, or by the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.
(16) If a false witness rises up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong,
(17) then both men involved in the controversy, shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges, who shall be in those days;
(18) And the judges shall diligently inquire, and behold, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother,
(19) then YOU shall do to him, as he had thought to have done to his brother; so you shall put away the evil from among YOU.
(20) Those who remain shall hear, and fear, and shall no longer commit any such evil among YOU.
(21) Your eye shall not pity; but it shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.